This is what the start to a great day looks like.

Summer.. green.. early in the morning and just me and the dirt road. running miles.. 8 today! 

I got to thinking on my run how the best part of my day is always when I'm running. It might be hard to run, but its when I feel my best, strongest and most accomplished. Accomplished in that I love being able to check off working out on my todo list first thing in the morning. 

I'm contributing my biking yesterday to today's speedy 1 - 4 miles.. and miles 5 -8 are my recovery do what you feel like miles. I try hard not to look at my Garmin when I run cool down miles. This way I just can enjoy just being outside running, letting my mind wander and let my breathing be easy.. I'd really have to work hard if I am to keep up an 8 something minute per mile pace on the remaining miles. 

See... I'm in my happy place. Biking just never has that same effect but I need the mix for variety and to help me run faster. I do pick up the pace when I take a few days off from running. 

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Saturday was all about the food. Steve and I took a mini road trip to Hudson Wisconsin. We had a gift card to use up at a restaurant, Bricks. This salad was AMAZING!!! Honey garlic dressing on Romaine lettuce, crispy bacon and pecans sprinkled with Gorgonzola cheese. I could eat salads 24-7 if they tasted this good all the time. I must copy this Salad! 

The pizza.. sausage, mushroom, onion and tomato pizza was beyond good. This place is sooo good! We still have $30 left to use up on the gift card so we will be back again! 

Just because we are good at splitting our food. We shared a FroYo..  chocolate, and berry blast with mostly fruit topping but I never can resist some peanut butter cups with chocolate yogurt. 

Hudson was crowded.. people every where. We found out why.. they had a car show down by the rivers edge. Steve's into cars so we strolled around while we ate our froyo.. 

 People do some weird stuff to old cars. I'm not really into owning one.. but its fun to look at how the cars have been fixed up. Just huge tanks of cars back in the 50's.

We had another gift card with just $10 remaining on it from Doolittle's. We just wanted to eat outside on a patio and knew they had a nice one plus, we know the food is going to be excellent. 

Something else we need to copy and make at home. Flat bread with roasted chicken, mushrooms, pesto, roasted tomatoes, cheese and Italian parsley. 

Not only did we eat the flat bread pizza.. we split a burger with smoked cheddar and bacon with fries. Who knew smoked cheddar cheese would give the burger such a good taste, like it was cooked over a wood fire. We are going to have to get this cheese for burgers made on our grill. 

This is why I love to workout every morning.. not only to I get to start out feeling great, I get to eat. Eat stuff like burgers and pizza because I just ran and burned 1000+ calories. I have a little wiggle room to eat some delicious stuff. Of course all in moderation. .that's why we split it and I try to take the smaller half and portions, but not always. 

14 Miles Biking just to get coffee

It sounds a little far to bike 14 miles just for coffee. It's really not far at all.. we bike 6 miles to Starbucks and bike home the other 8 miles along a rolling hilly dirt road. 

Its always fun to see the road progress.. this morning was a bit scary as that big crane with the bucket scoop was busy working and we had to go around it to get through. That big hole in the middle of the road is now filled in with dirt for the new road.. Our first time riding on it. Kind of spongy... feeling as we road over that area. It was filled with water so I'm assuming that's the reason its not solid ground. 

I don't like Starbucks food or need coffee, so I bring my own breakfast, a Greek 80 calorie fruit yogurt. I was missing all the raspberries I dump in it. 

I do like that they list calories on every food and drink option. It really does help me decide that I don't need a cinnamon roll that has well over 300 calories. Steve too made a healthier choice getting their version of an egg Mcmuffin,. 

It's a little hard getting motivated to bike another 8 miles after we finish our breakfast.. But once we get moving it feels great to be out enjoying the morning. Steve is looking to get a new lighter weight mountain bike. I think its time to upgrade. We do a fair amount of dirt road biking so its time to start looking.. Might get a deal at the end of the season? 

I like how the city of Rosemount has all these bike paths and signs every where. They are really a bike friendly city. 

Pace on the bikes was all over the place. Some of our riding is on paved roads, most is on dirt and there are a few places we have to stop to wait to cross roads or wait for a train.. 1 hour 10 minutes to go 14 miles. I'd really like to do this route 2x's and some day do a 100 mile road trip all on our bikes. I don't think we've biked farther then 25 miles and the longest we've been on our bikes was last weekend 3 hours in the woods. 

I was thinking about doing a brick workout.. run right after getting off the bike.. but nope.. Decided to finish up breakfast and enjoy the rest of my Saturday. 

August is my favorite month..

August is the BEST just because it's my birthday month plus, its summer so its got a lot going for it. 

The last week of July was extremely stressful so I'm looking forward to August and having a lot of fun with the remaining days of summer before the kiddo's go back to school in the fall. 

Last night was picture perfect, no wind, temperature was comfortably warm but not too hot, just an overall great night to sit outside watching Celina's soccer team. Tied game 1 to 1. 

I cut way back on my running and biking most of the week. I just needed to back off and today was pretty much the same. My plan was based on temperature. It felt a little on the coolish side and biking early in a tank top when there is a bit of a chill in the air..doesn't feel that great. I just decided better to run 3.4 miles to the gym and lift weights. 

It was another easy running day.. just keeping the pace around 9:30 per mile. I was going for consistency and easy. At the gym I really have been lifting a lot heavier weights for my arms. Added some weights when I do my ab exercises too. 

I'm starting to wonder when I'll see some arm improvement in muscle tone? I haven't done the hard work and cut back on calories to drop some pounds. I've been working on eating healthy foods at least 2 out of 3 meals and some days I make good snack choices and some times I don't. 

I've got to start eating a ton more veggies.. I picked my first two cherry tomatoes from my plants and had a delicious toasted ham sandwich. It kind of looked like the sandwiches we made on vacation but on toasted bread and my tomatoes on top. 

I've got a few August Goals:
1. Eat more veggies, keep up the healthy eating at all meals and snacks
2. Cut back on Calories to drop 10 pounds this month
3. keep lifting weights at least 3x's a week for 30 minutes
4. Keep up on Biking, swimming and running
5. Sign up for a 1/2 marathon in September or October.